Two who perished while scuba diving identified as San Jose couple

SAN JOSE -- Two scuba divers who died in the waters off Monterey County on Friday have been identified as Volodymyr and Marina Butsky, a husband and wife who lived at a condominium complex in the foothills of East San Jose.

The couple was diving off the Point Lobos State Reserve when one of their daughters alerted authorities that they were overdue around 2:45 p.m.

Eric Abma of the state Parks and Recreation Department told The Associated Press that rescue crews arrived to find Marina Butsky, 41, had been pulled out of the water by two other divers who found her facedown in the water. Her 40-year-old husband was recovered by firefighters. While CPR was performed on both, they were pronounced dead after being taken to the hospital.

According to a family website, the couple married in 1990 after growing up "in a charming city in Ukraine by the name of Poltava."

Volodymyr wrote that they got married young despite acquaintances wondering if they knew what they were doing.

"Though we did not mind -- we were mature enough (as we thought) and we did not care what they said," he wrote. "We already knew each other for almost four years and spent a lot of time together even before we started dating."

They both graduated from Poltava State Technical University in the Ukraine and have two daughters who were born before they came to the United States in 1999 when the economy in their native land tanked.

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Volodymyr worked as a software engineer, first in Portland, Oregon, and later in Silicon Valley. He writes that his latest post was at "a small but proud company MetaIntegration."

They have two daughters, one of whom graduated from Valley Christian High School in San Jose and is studying astrophysics at California Institute of Technology.

Family members who gathered at the couple's Buena Vista Court home on Monday declined to comment about the pair. Neighbors described them as friendly, and said Marina Butsky was on the board of the complex's homeowners association.

"She was really active in the community," said Diana Valverde, who lives in an adjoining unit. "She always said 'hi' to everyone, she was just a really good-hearted person."

According to Volodymyr's website, "In recent years we picked up a couple of new and exciting activities: shooting sports and scuba diving. We like both of them and now have to share our free time between camping trips, backpacking, trips to shooting ranges and ocean diving."

The cause of death has not been determined and the incident remains under investigation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Eric Kurhi at 408-920-5852. Follow him at Twitter.com/erickurhi.